People touch their face about 40 times an hour. Despite the recommendations of doctors, many Russians cannot get rid of this habit and become vulnerable not only to coronavirus, but also to other diseases. What is fraught with the desire to touch the mouth and eyes and how to overcome it, NEWS.ru found out.
The habit of touching your face with your hands sometimes leads to infection with feline or canine lichen. In addition, in this way you can pick up scabies, therapist Olga Burlakova explained in a conversation with NEWS.ru.
{{expert-quote-8874}}
Author: Olga Burlakova [therapist and wellness specialist]
Hands are one of the dirtiest places on our body. Bacteria accumulate not only on the fingers and palms, but also under the nails. Touching them to your mouth, you run the risk of picking up worms. Parasites can cause abdominal pain, poor appetite, and liver problems. Through the hands, among other things, viral diseases such as coronavirus, influenza, and hepatitis are transmitted.
The habit of touching the eyes with hands also carries negative health consequences. It can cause conjunctivitis, Elena Kudryashova, an ophthalmologist and member of the Association of Ophthalmologists and Strabismologists, told NEWS.ru.
Bacterial conjunctivitis is characterized by the discharge of pus - it is successfully treated with antibiotics. However, if the disease is infectious, then the person will also face reddening of the eyes and edema. Such conjunctivitis is the most contagious, it is harder to treat and may even be accompanied by clouding of the cornea, Kudryashova explained.
The habit of touching your face with your hands can also lead to ocular herpes.
{{expert-quote-8872}}
Author: Elena Kudryashova [ophthalmologist and member of the Association of Ophthalmologists Strabismologists]
If herpes occurs on the lips, a person can transfer it to his eyes with his hands. The problem is that if this has already happened once, the disease will bother the patient every time his immunity decreases. As the exacerbation repeats, herpes will begin to cover an ever larger area, which can lead not only to discomfort, but also to loss of vision.
Do not touch your eyes and with allergic conjunctivitis. This can only aggravate the situation if a person has an allergen on their hands.
Touching the face also causes inflammation of the skin, especially if there is powder or foundation on it. Dermatologist and cosmetologist Tatyana Egorova stated this in a conversation with NEWS.ru.
{{expert-quote-8870}}
Author: Tatiana Egorova [dermatologist, cosmetologist, trichologist]
The skin on the face is thinner than on the body, so bacteria there penetrate much faster into the deeper layers of the dermis. The situation can be aggravated by cosmetics. She already clogs the pores, and if you still touch your face with dirty hands, then there is a high probability of encountering inflammation.
If a person is already worried about minor inflammations, the desire to touch the face can even turn into large abscesses on the skin, Yegorova explained.
How to deal with cravings
The desire to touch your face is natural and pathological. In the first case, cravings occur when a person has an itchy nose or is thinking while sitting in front of a computer monitor. In addition, natural is understood as the desire to touch the face to attract attention. Clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist Alexandra Kondrakhina told NEWS.ru about this.
The pathological desire to touch the face is associated with anxiety and anxiety. And when these emotions accompany a person for most of his life, then such a reaction (behavior) is fixed. And he begins to constantly involuntarily reach for his face when he wants to calm down, explained the neuropsychologist.
This behavior can also bother people who are very focused on their appearance or depend on the opinions of others. In this case, the person begins to involuntarily reach for his face to check if everything is all right with him. This happens on a subconscious level.
{{expert-quote-8868}}
Author: Alexandra Kondrakhina [clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist]
If you are worried about the habit of touching your face, then you should do something with your hands. Try, for example, holding your phone in them or wrinkling an anti-stress toy. You can switch to some activity or reflection.
At the same time, it should be understood that a person can overcome the desire to touch his mouth and eyes only if he is aware of the problem and knows how to control his actions, explained Kondrakhina.
